Great Violinists And Pianists eBook

“P.S.—­In a month’s time I will
forward you the alterations of the drama ‘Moise,’
in order that you may judge if they are conformable
to the operatic style. Should they not be so,
you will have the kindness to suggest any others better
adapted to the purpose.”

IV.

Viotti, though in many respects proud, resolute, and
haughty in temperament, was simple-hearted and enthusiastic,
and a passionate lover of nature. M. Eymar, one
of his intimate friends, said of him, “Never
did a man attach so much value to the simplest gifts
of nature, and never did a child enjoy them more passionately.”
A modest flower growing in the grass of the meadow,
a charming bit of landscape, a rustic fete,
in short, all the sights and sounds of the country,
filled him with delight. All nature spoke to
his heart, and his finest compositions were suggested
and inspired by this sympathy. He has left the
world a charming musical picture of the feelings experienced
in the mountains of Switzerland. It was there
he heard, under peculiar circumstances, and probably
for the first time, the plaintive sound of a mountain-horn,
breathing forth the few notes of a kind of “Ranz
des Vaches.”

“The ‘Ranz des Vaches’ which I send
you,” he says in one of his letters, “is
neither that with which our friend Jean Jacques has
presented us, nor that of which M. De la Bord speaks
in his work on music. I can not say whether it
is known or not; all I know is, that I heard it in
Switzerland, and, once heard, I have never forgotten
it. I was sauntering along, toward the decline
of day, in one of those sequestered spots....
Flowers, verdure, streamlets, all united to form a
picture of perfect harmony. There, without being
fatigued, I seated myself mechanically on a fragment
of rock, and fell into so profound a reverie that
I seemed to forget that I was upon earth. While
sitting thus, sounds broke on my ear which were sometimes
of a hurried, sometimes of a prolonged and sustained
character, and were repeated in softened tones by
the echoes around. I found they proceeded from
a mountain-horn; and their effect was heightened by
a plaintive female voice. Struck as if by enchantment,
I started from my dreams, listened with breathless
attention, and learned, or rather engraved upon my
memory, the ’Ranz des Vaches’ which I
send you. In order to understand all its beauties,
you ought to be transplanted to the scene in which
I heard it, and to feel all the enthusiasm that such
a moment inspired.” It was a similar delightful
experience which, according to Rossini’s statement,
first suggested to that great composer his immortal
opera, “Guillaume Tell.”